It’s 5:30AM on Sunday, March 21st. With water bottle in hand and headlamp on, I head out the door and begin my morning long run. It’s officially been spring since 1:32PM ET yesterday but the temperature at this hour is still chilly. Regardless, it’s much better than the sub-freezing mornings of just a few weeks ago and a pair of shorts and a light, long-sleeve T-shirt suffice. I round the corner on to my first major road of the morning and head downhill to a depression between a small pond and a cranberry bog. As I approach the bottom, I hear a sound off to my right, the unmistakable chirp of the early risers of the spring peeper population. They made no sounds yesterday morning or last night but somehow they know that this morning it is spring and they’re attacking it with all of their gusto. It’s uncanny how a small amphibian is able to detect subtle changes in light and temperature and know that it’s the equinox. Perhaps the peepers are more technically adept than we imagine.

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• A hot shower after a run seems like a novel idea.
• The car driving up behind you turns out to not be a white van and it doesn’t toot at you several times as it drives past.
• People look at you strangely when you change in public.
• It’s unusual to not see runners in tutus or pink wigs.
• There is food other than Power Bars, gels, Gatorade and Dunkin’ Donuts.
• Jeans are too formal.
• You wake up at 3am to go for a run.
• A day with only one run is a rest day.
• You’re uncomfortable sleeping in a bed and have to spend the night in the car to find that contorted, twisted position that’s just right.
• All the cars that drive by don’t have writing on them.
• People actually work at town hall buildings or go to school at schools.
• You have absolutely no recollection of where that $400 worth of Timberland gear came from.
• You now describe the White Mountains as “moderately hilly.”
• Your arms are really light without a watch, GPS, water bottle, flash light and relay bracelet.
• Complete strangers can become close family within 24 hours.

Reach The Beach is a 200(+/-) running relay race across the state of New Hampshire. Held in the middle of September, it starts in the Franconia area of the White Mountains and ends at Hampton Beach. Teams of up to 12 runners rotate through 3 or more legs of 2 to 9 miles over the course of race. The winning teams typically finish in just over 21 hours while the slower teams can take up to 36 hours to complete the journey. For more information, visit the Reach The Beach website.

A few weeks ago, a close running friend lost his oldest son to the war in Afghanistan. I wanted to act. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to call him and let him know that I was here if he or his family needed anything. But I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t know what to say. There aren’t any Hallmark cards filed under “Lost A Son/Daughter To War” … no classes about how to talk to somebody after they’ve lost a child. So I went out for a run. I thought about Nick. I thought about his dad, his sisters, his brother and his friends.

A few months ago, we moved back to my old hometown. The reasons aren’t particularly important right now. But here I am back on the familiar roads that I trained on through high school, haphazard training for a single cross-country season each year, that I ran on periodically after I got married and was starting to worry about that ever growing lump of fat around my middle parts, and that my dad and I shared many slow runs on as I was introduced to running as a grade schooler.

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Recent complaints about the timeliness of the newsletter, sometimes due to circumstances under our control but much of the time due to outside influences – but that’s a topic for another editorial – have caused us to question just what roles a newsletter currently serves, or more importantly, what role it should serve in the months and years ahead. In years past, the newsletter was a key communications channel, frequently the only communications method apart from face-to-face contact at meetings, club events and races, for club members to reach one another, to discuss what was happening in running and multisport, and to catch up on regional and national news items that may not have made the local newspapers. Now we have instant news available at our fingertips.

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Running a 100 mile week has been one of the short-term goals on my running agenda for a while but no matter what I did, I couldn’t break through a 50-60 mile week without developing some type of injury.  Since many of the elite distance runners regularly log this type of mileage, it seemed like a logical stepping stone and an accessible goal but also remained frustratingly out of reach.  After a few years on the roads, I’m happy to report that I achieved the 100 mile week with a 7-day total mileage of 102.2 a few weeks ago and I’ve discovered a few things along the way that have helped.

It’s In The Shoes

I’ve always believed that the majority of injuries are caused by worn or improper footwear but still couldn’t understand how, just as I started to hit 60 miles per week, I’d end up with some weird or perverse injury that would bring my mileage back down to the 20′s.  I typically used 1 model of shoe that I put the bulk of my weekly running mileage on and would sometimes have an extra pair in reserve.  I was wearing the same pair of shoes regularly until they started breaking down and causing sore spots, and using that as an indicator that it was time for a new pair of shoes.  By that time it was too late and the timing was always such that just as I had built up to 60 miles per week, I’d also hit the maximum mileage in the shoe.  The answer?  I now have several pairs of shoes “active” at the same time.  I make sure to never wear the same pair of shoes for more than one run in a row and include in my shoe arsenal several different types.  For my particular wear pattern, I include a stability shoe, a cushioned trainer, a lightweight trainer, a cheapo beater, and a racing flat.  Now if that seems a little excessive, don’t forget that I’m still using shoes at the same rate, getting the same mileage from the model as I would have had I been wearing it exclusively and, apart from the initial expense, since the various models wear at different rates, I only need to rotate in a new type of shoe as its counterpart wears out.  The benefit from this method is the fact that each pair of shoes recruits your muscles in a slightly different fashion and therefore, repetitive motion injuries (RMI’s) which account for the majority of running related injuries, virtually disappear.  If you do get an RMI, the most likely cause is now overtraining rather than worn out shoes and confirmation of overtraining can easily be drawn from a correlation with a marked elevation in resting heart rate.  The causes of the bulk of my injuries now consist primarily of tripping over toys and falling over on my bike.

Variety

Just as alterations in footwear change muscle recruitment patterns, changing your training from day to day achieves a similar yet less dramatic effect.  Change surfaces, speeds, and elevations from day to day rather than always running the same course on the same pavement day after day and if you have access to a treadmill, throw it in the mix now and then too.  In the table below, you’ll see that I’ve included the track, some very hilly easy days, some trails, and some pavement.  While I increased my average daily run to an hour from 30-40 minutes, the wear and tear on my muscles shifted from day to day as I changed the workload.  In addition, the inclusion of hills, trails and other terrain increases strength and stimulates the proprioreceptive response in your muscles.

Slow Down

Prior to embarking on my 100 mile quest, I took the opportunity to strap on a heart rate monitor (HRM) and discovered that my heart rate on my “easy” days was far above where all the on-line calculators and magazine articles said it should be.  Easy days should be run at a heart rate between 50 and 60% of your maximum heart rate (MaxHR) and shouldn’t exceed 70%.  I discovered that I was running most of my easy days in the “Gray Zone”, that nether region where you reap neither the benefits of aerobic conditioning nor of anaerobic strength and speed.  Instead, you just burn all the life out of your muscles and eventually develop an injury or strain.  Slowing down on the easy days left me ready for the demands of a long run, a track workout, or a double.

Do The Double

Without doing a week’s worth of 20 mile runs, the only sensible way of achieving high mileage is to double up a few of your workouts.  By doing one run in the morning and one in the early to mid-afternoon, you give your body a chance to rest and repair some of the damage from the previous run.  It’s wise to not do the second run too late in the day or you’ll be stale and heavy the following morning.  It’s also important to rehydrate fully between runs, consume adequate calories in the break, stretch as needed, and vary the runs.  If the morning consisted of hills or intervals, the afternoon should be an easy run.  Likewise, if the morning run was relatively easy, the afternoon run can be a little bit harder.  My double days in this period consisted of Easy-Easy, Tempo-Hard, Easy-Easy combinations.  Certainly, make sure that the morning after a double is either easy or makes a significant change in muscle recruitment.  With my current job condition, which involves a majority of sitting in front of a computer for the day, the afternoon run comes as a welcome respite and a chance to loosen up the muscles.

Stay Healthy

One of the body’s systems put under the heaviest stress by increased mileage is your immune system.  Many marathoners have been frustrated in their quests by that sickness that plagues them just after they wind up their last long run and begin their taper weeks before the big day.  It’s important to get adequate sleep, hydration, nutrition, and caloric intake when undertaking a high mileage period.  On one of my first high mileage attempts, I was maintaining 95 miles in a 7 day period for several days when I decided to back off due to a few nagging muscles.  That weekend was filled with two hard 5 mile races and insufficient sleep and by the following Tuesday, I had been attacked by a head cold that didn’t let go for over a week.  Listen to your body carefully and pay attention to small pains, sleepy eyes, and scratchy throats.  If some muscle starts to twinge, lay back on the mileage for a few days or even take a few days completely off and it should go away.

Why?

So why do we need to do all this mileage anyway?

• Increase your aerobic capacity and performance.  Championed by Arthur Lydiard in the 1950′s and adopted and enhanced by many successful runners and coaches since, the single most influential factor in increasing performance is aerobic capacity.  Once aerobic capacity has been maximized, strength and anaerobic training phases can be layered on top for additional performance.  The best way to maximize your aerobic capacity is to run long distance while staying aerobic.  This doesn’t necessarily imply running long ‘slow’ distance; the core of the base building period should consist of runs which are just below your lactate threshold, that point where some muscles start becoming anaerobic.  In my case, 4-6 weeks of running between 80 and 100 miles per week have translated into an increase in performance of approximately 10 seconds per mile for a 5 mile race.

• You get out of the house more.  For some this may be a benefit, for others a deterrent.  You’ll have to decide whether or not your lifestyle can afford this kind of mileage.  To fit in the additional mileage, take advantage of opportunities like group runs in the evenings, go for a run while you wait for the kids at baseball practice or gymnastics, or run during lunch break at work.

• You are an experiment of one.  It is our nature to find our boundaries and push beyond them.  Piling on the mileage is an attempt to discover just how much your body can tolerate before breaking down and to increase that threshold.

• It’s fun.  There’s an element of freedom in just popping out anytime for a run or being able to say “Sure!” anytime someone asks if you’d like to go out for a few miles.  And with the right variation of running routes, you’ll see more of the world.

• Decrease injuries.  The more you run, the more your body adapts to the rigors of running.  As you increase mileage, you increase strength, stay looser, and decrease your susceptibility to injury.

The End

So now that I’ve put in a few solid miles and built a strong aerobic foundation, I’m into the strength and anaerobic sessions.  Perhaps a few tidbits on speed tuning and leg turnover will pop up in a column soon.  For now, I hope I’ve given you a little incentive and some ideas for getting more out of your aerobic training.  But before you head out the door for your 100 mile week, remember that I was running average weeks of 40 to 60 miles with a long run of 16-20 miles.  If you’re starting from a lower base, the same principles apply but you need to increase your mileage more slowly.  Don’t increase your mileage by more than 10% per week and include a reduction in mileage, or a “rest week” every fourth week.

After a while, grinding out the miles on your tried and true neighborhood courses makes getting excited for a run on even your most favorite course virtually impossible.  As the leaves on the few deciduous trees on the Cape begin to change color and leap from the trees, here are a few ideas on how to add some spice to your daily runs.

Run the course backwards.  Take one of your daily courses and run it in reverse.  As well as turning all the up-hills into down-hills (and unfortunately making all the down-hills up-hills along the way), you will see the course from a new perspective.  One holiday season, I ran one of the courses that I normally run several times a week, backwards and discovered a bright blue star of lights and a bright white peace symbol on the sides of two houses facing me.  I had never seen them running the other way.

Introduce a friend to one of your favorite training courses.  If you have a friend that runs, take them along on one of your courses or go visit one of theirs.  There’s no feeling quite like sharing that hill at mile 7.

Run one of your favorite race courses by yourself at a completely different time of year.  That race course you ran in the middle of July with 2000 people will have a completely different character in January.  Allow for some time to look around and next year, when you’re dying of dehydration at the 5^th mile, imagine the course is still covered in snow that freezes your toes with every step.

Splice a few of your training courses together.  Joining a few short courses together to make a longer run tends to make the long run a little more endurable.  In addition, the endorphins at 10 miles will make the course look a lot different than it does at 3.

Drive somewhere new and explore.  Hop in the car and drive 30-45 minutes from your regular running routes.  Then run a few miles somewhere that you’ve never run before.  If you go on business (or pleasure) trips, be sure to get out and explore.  Its the best way to get to know the place and the people that you’re visiting.

Run with your kids.  For your kids, every run is on a new course.  See what running looks like through their eyes.

Leave the watch at home.  If you always train with the chrono attached to your wrist, leave it at home.  Instead of keeping your eye on your time, take a look around and see what you’ve been missing.

Run a track workout.  If you’ve never run on a track before, find a group that does a weekly track workout and join them for a few runs.  As well as giving you a very accurate way to judge your pace and perceived exertion, you’ll find a number of nuances in track running that don’t exist on the roads.  For a real challenge, tack on a pair of spikes and try to keep from falling over.

Take to the woods.  If you run on the roads all the time, find a nearby trail and explore.  Its gentle on your joints and you might stumble over some flora or fauna.  But watch out for bicycles, bears, or scorpions, depending on your latitude.

Find a group to run with.  Its a great way to catch up on events of the day (or week, or month), run places you’ve never run before, find out about local races, commiserate about your most recent running injuries, chat about healing remedies, and in general, make running less like work and more fun.

So, you’ve been running hard all spring and summer and are in a rut.  Now’s the time to experiment, try new things, and take a little time off.  And pretty soon, your old courses will be refreshing old friends.